


Scarred: Inside and Out

by Deanie95



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:49:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2560295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deanie95/pseuds/Deanie95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>April reacts to Casey's scars in a way he never thought any girl would.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scarred: Inside and Out

Fire.

It hurt. So hot.

“You tell your old man, punk, next time pay up or else.”

Thrown to the ground. Watching the thugs leave. Watching the fire. Screaming. So…so many screams. Uncle Rich…

Dad…?

“Casey!”

Boom.

Ow…

…Ow…?

The shop…where…?

“Oh God! Arnold!”

Mama?

“Baby, are you okay?! Oh, God, just…just stay calm, okay sweetie? Dammit, where are the damn cops when you need them?! Somebody! HELP!”

My chest and stomach hurt…Mom? Mama?

“Oh, God, somebody, please help me! Dear God, m my baby's bleeding!” Why are you screaming, Mom? “Arnold? Arnold, sweetheart, you gotta stay calm, okay? Just. Stay. Calm. Somebody help me dammit!”

Mom pulls me onto her lap. She's rocking me back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. Over and over and over again. Why is she doing this? Is she … is she crying?!

I try to get up, but she won't let me … or I can't … I'm tired … why am I tired? Why does my head hurt?

“Arnold?!, Arnold, baby, you gotta stay awake, baby! Arnold! Casey!”

“Casey!”

“Casey!”

 

 

“C'mon, Case, wake up!” April smacked lightly on the thrashing mans cheek, “Dammit, Casey! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Guh!”

Casey awoke, sweating, shaking, and disoriented. And nauseated. In fact—

“'Scuse me!” he managed to blurt before he scrambled from the bed and made for the bathroom.

He hated that dream…Nightmare…Flashback…whatever it was, he truly, truly hated it. Jesus, it happened so rarely that he still freaked out like a freaking kid when it happened. Kind of hard to be a manly man when a bad dream flipped his stomach upside down… “Hup, buumg, bleeegh…mmmbuueeeeeghhh!”

Casey sat on the tile floor and pressed his back to the wall, “D…damn…”

Why did this happen? Why couldn't he just get the hell over this dream? Richie did, Mom was find, hell Sid was even better than everyone else, so why couldn't he be just like them? For once in his life, he wished that, when he had the dream, he would just be able to brush it off just like every one else.

“Casey?” April asked as she knocked on the door to the bathroom, “You okay?”

“…M'fine…” he croaked, putting his face in his hands.

April opened the door a tad, “You sure?”

“No.”

“Do you need anything?”

“Nothin' ya' can provide…”

“Can I come in?”

“…I don't care…”

April slipped through the cracked door, shut it behind her, then walked over and crouched next to the still sweating man. She stayed like that for a few moments before pulling his hands away and holding her own to his forehead, checking his temperature.

“You don't have a fever, so you're not sick…so what was that about?” April pushed at the hair that was stuck to Casey's face, “Everything okay in that head of yours, Case?”

“No. It's ain't. An' it probably never will be.”

The red-headed woman ran her fingers through his blue-black hair, “I take it this is something you're not gonna tell me about, isn't it?”

“…it's a dream…”

“What…?”

Casey took a deep, ragged breath, “I keep…dreaming…about how my…my father died…”

“And?”

Casey looked at her, puzzled, “'And'? And what?”

“Well, whenever I have bad dreams about how my parents…died…there's usually something else that scares me too…” April murmured as she continued to comb her fingers through.

“Like what?”

She shrugged, “Well, the dream starts with me and my sister and a family friend and my parents in the car and we're all just laughing and then Kiara, my friend who was with us, asks 'Mr. O’Neil, where do we go when we die?'. I…I don't know why a seven year old little girl would ask that kind of question, but…see my dad glance back in the mirror and say, “Well, Ari, dear, we all go to a better place.'

“And Kiara, if she ever comes back to New York, you'll totally have to meet her, then she asks 'But how do you know?', Daddy turns around and starts to say, 'Well, Kiara—' and then, well, the semi comes, hits the car, and we roll and roll and roll. In the dream, we're rolling forever, which is what really scares me, but other than that…well, I see blood…every…everywhere…God, and then…I wake up, scared and crying and, well, that's pretty much it…”

Casey blinked at the red-headed woman who still looked at him in concern, “An' people think I have problems…”

“The difference between our traumas, Casey,” April said softly as she put her arm around his neck and pulled his head onto her shoulder, “is that I went through counseling for years to come to terms with my parents being gone.”

“An' what would ya' ol' counselor say about me?”

“Well, he'd tell me that I'm being irrational way too often because you are a pretty perfect guy. And that, perhaps, physical trauma may play a part…” April said, scratching lightly, comfortingly, behind Casey's ear, “You really thought I wouldn't notice the fact that we never have shower sex or when we have normal sex, you always keep a shirt on? Or keep me so busy I can't keep my eyes open?”

“I, er, well…”

“I get it, you know. I got these scars right here on my rib cage where the windshield blew into the back seat.” April said as she lifted up her shirt with her free hand to show him, “Now that I have that off my chest, you can show me yours.”

Casey groaned inwardly as he pulled away to take his muscle shirt off, then looked away from April, “The shop, well, Dad worked on bikes, ya' know, an', well, the fire started an' when it got ta' the bikes, the gas in the tanks…well, I don't think I gotta tell ya' that fire an' fuel shouldn't mix…the shop exploded. My chest and stomach got burned. Apparently.”

“How…” April blinked and pulled gently on Casey's hair, “Hey, look at me.”

Casey turned and snapped, “What?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Casey saw the scars he'd kept well hidden since he got them. The rough, wrinkled skin with splotches of light pink mocked him. He hated them. His mother couldn't stand to look at him without his shirt. That was the worst part. His mother not being able to look at him without fear or pity in her eyes was the worst damn thing.

“I don't care if you have burn scars, Casey. I love you regardless. And I probably shouldn't tell you this, but girls, for centuries, have found scars sexy. You were sexy before I got to see this and you still are.” April pulled herself onto Casey's lap, “If you think I'm ashamed of you for scars that have hurt you more than the incident itself, then you're wrong. I love you regardless.

“I know my loving you doesn't change the fact that your dad is dead, just like the fact that your loving me doesn't change the fact that my parents are gone.” April pulled herself closer to Casey, holding him in a tight hug, “That's the funny thing about love and life. They end in death. But it doesn't mean we can let that hold us back.”


End file.
